I have tried my hand at bacon cupcakes before and some of my coworkers were huge fans. I was planning some celebratory cupcakes for work and I decided on bringing back the bacon. I was tentative with my inclusion of bacon last time around and I was looking for a chance to push it a bit more.

The frosting is subtle enough that it works on both cupcakes. But to be frank, if I do the sweet corn version again, I want to find a way to nicely push the maple flavor. I am thinking maple candy chunks in the frosting. The sweet corn version is great though. The corn was super juicy and the bacon flavor just enough. I also really liked the chocolate version. It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate and toffee anyway, but the salty, smokiness of the bacon took it to another level.

1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into the bowl of a standing mixer.
2. In a medium bowl, combine oil, egg yolks, water, and maple syrup. Stir to combine.
3. On a low setting, start to beat the dry mixture and slowly add the wet. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until ingredients are incorporated.
4. Transfer mixture to another bowl. Wash and dry mixer bowl.
5. Whip egg whites with whip attachment on medium-high speed until foamy. With the mixer on medium speed, add cream of tarter and slowly add sugar. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. Scoop a cupful of the stiff egg whites into the batter and stir to combine. This will lighten up the batter.
7. Transfer the batter to the egg whites and gently fold until there are no more streaks of egg white.
8. Gently fold in the corn kernels and bacon.
9. Scoop into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake at 350 F for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2 Add egg and beat until well combined.
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Gently fold in the bacon and toffee chunks.
7. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2-2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

1. Bring butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours.
2. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment.
3. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.
4. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and maple syrup. Beat until combined.
5. Add more maple syrup and confectioners sugar until you get to the flavor, consistency, and sweetness you like.

am i the first to realize you are back??? oh hooray!! love your blog, i’ve learned so much from it. i love your innovation and experimentation in flavours, and how you share it with the world…. !! thank you! :)

I am thrilled to find a post from you! I have kept my shortcut to cupcakeblog all this time and open it periodically. I am freakishly obsessed with cupcakes so I apoligize for not being familiar with your new blog. I was one of your O.C.D. cupcake fans that did not follow you to your new dessert blog. It is invigorating to hear from you again. I am inspired to move beyond my cupcake boundaries. Thank you for your energy.

Even when you were away, I still referred back to your fabulous recipes! I just found some of your latest and tried out the Bacon Cupcakes (chocolate version) … YUM! … for a holiday work party we had at our house. My husband works for a food marketing/ad agency and their biggest client is Hormel, so bacon is often a theme at these little soirees. They were a huge hit! (of course I knew the moment I licked the spoon, before anything even hit the oven, that they’d be to die for.) Thanks for another great recipe.

I made the chocolate one for my fiance’s birthday yesterday and while the chocolate cupcake and frosting was delicious, I’m not really digging the bacon portion. Maybe I didn’t cook it right because they came out really chewy but also with too subtle of a flavor to pick out from the chocolate. Let me say though that I like bacon chocolate bars because of the smokey bacon and crunch. If I try this recipe again, I’ll aim for smaller pieces of crunchy bacon.

Even so, I’ll save this recipe just for the chocolate and maple frosting. They are delicious!

I love your site! I did have a question about making frostings with liquid ingredients (honey, maple syrup). Every time I try this, I can’t seem to get them thick enough. I made this recipe and added 14 c of powdered sugar and still got relatively runny icing. I also find as I add more sugar, the flavor of the honey or syrup gets lost. Is there anything I can do to stiffen the icing up? Or is that just the way this type of icing is?

I’m going to make these both for a friend’s daughter who just started eating pork again (welcome to the world, little girl!) but since it doesn’t specifically say, I wanted to make sure: is the cocoa used in the chocolate cupcakes supposed be dutch process cocoa or not? It seems Valhrona is dutch process, so I can assume that’s okay?

I used Valhrona which is dutch processed. If you use natural cocoa powder substitute come or all of the baking powder for baking soda. Informative write up on natural versus dutch cocoa can be found on David Lebovitz’s blog.

I’m planning on trying the Bacon/Chocolate Toffee out, but I was wondering: the second cupcake picture doesn’t look like there’s any coco in it.. did you leave that out in that batch? I’d like to make them without chocolate (but obviously keep the chocolate toffee)… can I do that without ruining them? Thanks for your help!!

Hi, I just tried the bacon toffee cupcakes and it was a huge mess. The cupcakes were not viscous enough and puffed up and leaked out all over my oven. I am sure that I had the recipe correct, and I split the batter into 21 cups, so I don’t believe it was an issue of just cups filled too large. Any ideas?